I really like how Zog mentions wading and bank fishing as being a skill in and of itself because that is something I have always felt, and it is something that never really gets mentioned in fishing reads.

I definitely prefer bank fishing because of the numerous challenges it puts in my way. Not only does the angler have to read the water, he has to find a rock, if one exists, that allows him to angle his presentation to the holding water.

On that note, I was on a brand new river to me last weekend in Oregon. I spent much time checking pullout after pullout getting burned by water that was too deep and bottomless for me to carefully swing a fly through. Finally I found a tailout that looked to be the [censored], with an outcrop of rock that would get me in a spot to present the fly properly. First cast, 7 pound hen, fifth cast missed a fish, and that was it for that tailout. Not huge fish but God damn were those encounters satisfying.

It took a lot of different dimensions to my fishing to pull that off and I think that is what Zog is getting at. Zog isn't trying to be holier than though, he is trying to remind us all that numbers aren't the important thing, satisfaction is. Wouldn't you be more satisified if you could put it all together on your own and nailed a gorgeous steelhead?

If you don't care and you just want to catch as many steelhead as possible than you are just a different kind of fisherman and there is nothing wrong with that at all.